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Wire Fraud – A Case Study

Date Published:

March 5th, 2015

A prominent mortgage lending company was in process of hiring loan officers and closers. They had numerous applicants and wanted to perform their due diligence with regards to checking into the background of their most promising candidates, which is how they uncovered a case of wire fraud.

Action Taken by NationSearch

The job duties of these positions are such that the individuals being hired will be privy to the very private information of the company clients/loan applicants. Accordingly, an advanced comprehensive search was ordered. Therefore, in addition to the basic comprehensive search for this industry, consisting of: County Criminal, Sex Offender, Department of Corrections (DOC), Federal Criminal, Nationwide Criminal Database/Sex Offender, Motor Vehicle Record (MVR),Credit further searches were necessary. The additional searches consisted of: Banking Enforcement, Interpol (terrorist watch site), OFAC/ SDN (US Treasury Dept.), SAM/LDP Search/BIS Denied Persons List (US Dept. of Commerce).

A search of this potential employee found that he had a felony conviction for wire fraud. He had been charged with 46 counts in 2009; plead guilty to one so as to get the other 45 counts dismissed. He had served 14 months in Federal prison, with 3 years’ supervised release. He was ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to a major on-line retailer.

Conclusion:

This screening cost was approx. $109, because the company made the decision to look at the various states the applicant had lived in, and conduct the extra searches beyond the minimum due diligence. The decision by the mortgage company to perform an in depth criminal history check provided them with the information necessary to avoid a potential catastrophe.

Needless to say, these results further underline the reason for their policy of conducting such a comprehensive screening.

Let NationSearch help you with all of your background screening needs. 800-827-9550